Democratic Apologies Gone Wild

So, Representative Pete Stark (D-CA) has apologized to his colleagues and the president for saying that Bush found "amusement" in troops getting their heads blown off. No doubt prompted by heavy pressure from Democratic leadership, Stark said yesterday, "I want to apologize to my colleagues, many of whom I have offended". He then apologized to "the president and his family" and "the troops." "I hope that with this apology, I return to being as insignificant as I should be", Stark said with emotion. The whole thing started when Stark said last week, "You don't have money to fund the war or children," Stark said, "But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."

Now, it's true enough that Rep. Pete Stark should have probably worded that differently, knowing that the Republicans wouldn't hesitate to play the outrage card. But, lost in all the apologizing is Stark's correctly stated larger point - that the CheneyBush White House has no problem spending billions of dollars every week to keep the death machine running in Iraq, yet can't bring themselves to spend far less billions to expand healthcare for children in their own country. Instead of apologizing for Starks lack of eloquence, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the rest of the apology happy Democratic leadership should have stood beside Stark and used the incident to highlight his very valid and inescapable conclusion - that the White House and its Republican and fake Democratic enablers in Congress prefer policies that produce death, over those that produce health and prosperity - and frankly, yes, some of them may very well be amused by all the carnage they've caused.

In fact, if apologies are in order at all, they should be coming from the White House and the rest of their Death Party (Republican) friends in Congress for using lies to start a devastating war of aggression, and now having the nerve to insist on its continuance. How about apologizing to Iraqis for destroying their country and causing the death of who knows how many hundreds of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children? How about demanding some apology for the nearly 4,000 American deaths that CheneyBush and the Death Party have caused in their Iraq adventure? How about apologizing to the American people for running up an almost 10 TRILLION DOLLAR national debt, while pushing for more war and more tax cuts, primarily for the wealthy? How about apologizing for violating the Constitution, international law, treaties and countless other US laws? How about the Death Party apologizing for constantly derailing important debates about national security by misrepresenting, smearing, slandering and insulting Democrats? How about some apologies from CheneyBush and the Death Party for generally acting like assholes?

Phew! Sorry for the rant.

Now, it's fine if Democrats want to allow Republicans to dig their own grave in the lead up to next years elections, but do they have to accept being pushed around and take so much crap along the way? It seems they shouldn't so quickly bow down to a president who's been polling around 30% for years now, and Death Party Congress members with only slightly more credibility, and far less civility. If anyone should be put in the awkward position Pete Stark was put in these past few days, it should be CheneyBush and the Death Party. While confronted with an opposition who've had the gloves off for many years now, and all kinds of dirty tricks up their sleeves, our Democratic friends are still conducting themselves as if decorum and good will matter. It's time for America's oldest party to hit back and call them out on their hypocrisy.

Despite their most recent faux outrage over the "betrayus" controversy over MoveOn's NY Times ad, and now the Pete Stark thing, the Death Party has a far longer rap sheet when it comes to outlandish and offensive name calling and general slander, and never have they so easily given in to Democratic objections and calls for decency. With few exceptions, there was no outrage from the Death Party when the Swift Boat Veterans for Lies assassinated the reputation of Senator and Presidential nominee John Kerry. There is no outrage when Death Party members get on the House and Senate floors and insinuate that Democrats are cowards, or falsely accuse Democrats of literally wanting to leave troops unarmed and un-fed in Iraq, by suggesting that Congress exercise it's Constitutionally granted power to withhold funding for the Iraq occupation. There wasn't any outrage from the Death Party when one of its leaders, John Boehner, who claims to love the troops, said that the lives lost in Iraq are a "small price" to pay for whatever demented goal he believes we are trying to achieve. Honestly, the list of egregious comments by elected Death Party representatives could go on and on if this author had the time to dig it all up.

It is about time for Democrats to not simply roll over and apologize without making it clear that decency and respect is not a one way street. If the Death Party still refuses to act with civility - then maybe its time to stop apologizing and keep the gloves off.